


The values we share

by RoswellNM42



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 10:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19293751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoswellNM42/pseuds/RoswellNM42
Summary: Sorry for any mistakes.For a prompt over on livejournal.Kyle and Liz react to the possibility of their parents dating.I hope you enjoy!





	The values we share

_"I don't like her family. My parents struggled for years in poverty so that they could enter this country legally because they believed in America. In freedom, in patriotism, in the law. And people who defy that law give us all a bad name."_  
  
And maybe she had come across too harsh she thinks, but she knew something had been going on with her late husband and that family – something that took Jim away from her and her son, and it wasn’t his job. She knew whatever business Jim had with the Ortecho family was something that would surely have her in tears and their family destroyed. A family she had worked so hard to have.   
  
She watches as Arturo Ortecho works, as she recalls the words she had said to her son Kyle that day. The man was always one of the first few people to be awake in the sleepy town that was Roswell, being up at the crack of dawn as he had his morning coffee before going downstairs to open up the crashdown, to start a new day.   
  
The man was equally always one of the last people to finish work in this town too, late at night, like herself, she would always see him through the windows of the crashdown as he cleaned the diner, a perfectionist like herself, in his own right, ensuring it was done right. Taking pride in his work and the diner that he was so proud of. She would do the same thing, going through case notes, ensuring the paper work was fine and completed correctly.   
  
The crashdown was always one of the first places to be open in the morning, the smell of bacon coming from the place would sometimes hit her car when the windows where down, as she drove past on her way to the station in the mornings. Her stomach would sometimes rumble whilst she went past, begging her to go in and feed it, but she couldn’t on principal. She believed in patriotism. In the law. What the Ortecho family had done, gave them all a bad name.   
  
-x-  
  
She's called into the crashdown. Max nowhere to be found and Cameron on another case in town, some kids had left a mess over night in an abandoned farm barn, beer cans all over the place, she no doubt thought was what Cameron was dealing with at the moment. Someone had reported strange noises coming from the abandoned farm on the other side of town. And they where obliged to go check it out.   
  
She pushes the door to the diner open, ignoring how the open sign moved slightly. Taking a deep breath, she had tried to avoid the family that had destroyed her own, as much as she could, but she had no choice this time round.   
  
“It’s fine, I don’t need you to be here.”  
  
Ortecho says waving her off upon seeing her. There was fresh red blood pouring from his nose, the man looked worse for ware. Cuts and bruises forming all over his face, and she wasn’t expecting this, when she walked through those doors. She had thought maybe something common like racial slurs spray painted on the back wall behind the diner or something along those lines that was normal for a town like Roswell, but instead Arturo Ortecho had been assaulted.   
  
“What happened?”  
  
Alarm in her voice, as she steadied the man onto a high stool that was near the diner counter behind him.  
  
“It's nothing.”  
  
He tries to say again.   
  
“It's not nothing, Mr Ortecho. You’re bleeding.”  
  
She says trying to get the man to come to his senses. As she grabs some tissue from one of the tables, holding it up to his nose as the man takes the tissue from her.   
  
“Do you know who did this?”   
  
She asks, because she might not like how the Ortecho family came into this country but they where still part of Roswell, and Roswell was her jurisdiction, keeping everyone safe was her job as the sheriff, no matter how she felt about them, she thinks pushing everything aside to get to the answers she needed to do her job.  
  
“They're just kids.”  
  
Ortecho says. And she wants to fight him on this, he still had rights, he was a person after all.  
  
“I take it you won't be pressing charges.”  
  
“No....”  
  
Is the answer Arturo gives her as he moves the tissue away, trying to gauge whether hes still bleeding or not. And she should leave but instead helps the man get cleaned up and stays. She thinks its maybe the way the man says no to not pressing charges, there’s no anger behind it, where she thinks there maybe should be, or would be if it where anyone else.   
  
-x-  
  
She’s not sure why but she feels compelled to go back the next morning, finally giving into the demands of her stomach. And if she thought the smell was any good from outside, it’s even better coming from inside.   
She orders some pancakes and a side of bacon as she sets to make her presence be known. She’s there to ensure no one tries anything else, as she has no doubt the attack on Arturo was racially motivated, that, and some people in Roswell where still upset, ten years later at the crash that had taken Arturo’s daughter, Rosa, and the two girls that where with her that day.   
  
Arturo comes over to take her plate as she stands up, getting money out to place on the table when he speaks. She can now see the full extent of the damage to his face. Still it looked better than on the night she had come in to his nose bleeding.   
  
“On the house.”  
  
He says before she can insist on paying, pointing to the sign on the window.   
  
“Free of charge for any Army or Police officer.”  
  
And that’s why Max Evan’s was always in here, she thought to herself. That and the food was actually really good.   
  
And there had been a few times that army officers had come in taking advantage, throwing food on the floor because they could. Liz watched them, she’s ready to speak her mind and come over to them, but her father always held her back. They where putting their lives on the line, he would remind her. Even if they where ass wholes.   
  
And there is actual surprise on her face as she picks up the notes off of the table that she had started to place down.   
  
“Thank you, Mr Ortecho, for taking care of the brave men and women of this grate country.”  
  
She says pulling the chair under the table.   
  
He gives her a smile as he picks up her plate, clearing the table now. And it’s there and then that she realises that Arturo Ortecho did indeed stand for her values. What could be more patriotic than giving free food out to those who had served this country. And maybe for the first time she thinks she may have pre-judged the Ortecho family.   
  
-x-   
  
It’s what makes her go in the next morning for a cup of coffee again, sitting on a table by the door. If anyone deserved the police force keeping an eye on them, it was those who understood the job they had to do and the service men and women in the armed forces did. Or at least that’s what she tells herself.   
  
“Are you sure I can’t get you anything else to go with that cup of coffee, sheriff.”  
  
Arturo says, a smile on his face, but she insists. Politely letting him know that the coffee is plenty enough.  
  
Liz watches from behind the counter with one eyebrow raised. Since when did the sheriff start coming in for her morning cup of coffee, she thinks.   
  
Its then that Kyle Valenti comes in and she doesn’t miss the surprise on his face either, when his mother calls him over to her table, to have a cup of coffee with her.   
  
“Mum....what are you doing here?”  
  
He takes a seat opposite her.   
  
“I thought you didn’t like the Ortecho’s.”  
  
He whispers the last part so neither Liz nor her father hears him say it, as he comes forward closer to his mum.   
  
“I might of been wrong about the Ortecho family....they seem like really hard working, good people.”  
  
And Kyle sits back on the chair, letting his back rest on the backrest.   
  
“Well, I better get going.”  
  
She says before leaving Kyle at the table. And he had questions, wanted to ask his mum since when? And what changed her mind. But she was the sheriff and was probably busy. It could wait for a different time when they weren’t in the diner to talk about it.   
  
-x-   
  
“That was weird, right?”  
  
Liz asks him when he comes up to her, she’s still standing behind the diner counter.   
  
“Yeah.”  
  
He says, looking back at the door his mum had just walked through, because how was it his mother had done a full 360 on the Ortecho family.   
  
Rosa looks to her dad working in the kitchen.   
  
“You don’t think...?”  
  
Liz says, not being able to finish that sentence.  
  
“They wouldn’t, where they?”  
  
Liz says even more shocked than what Kyle looked.  
  
“Maybe.”  
  
He offers, it would explain a lot.  
  
And if that is what happens in a few months from now, when Arturo Ortecho asks sheriff Valenti out, and she accepts his offer. It’s not something there kids needed to know about just yet.


End file.
